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Those are very nice looking boots, indeed! I wouldn't feel weird about wearing them to more places. When you described them as "fancy," I rather expected them to be heavily ornamented, a bright color, or patent leather, something like that. The picture rather surprised me. They look as though they could complement almost anything. I second what higherheels said. Once you get above a certain height, and for me personally it's 4 inches, 1/4" is a big difference. I say once you get above 4 1/2 inches, 1/8" is a big difference. Although you haven't explicitly said so, I get the idea that you're not necessarily into heel height as an aesthetic absolute in the way that I am. In other words, at least in my interpretation of your description, you thought the boots were attractive as a whole, and they just happened to have very tall heels, and maybe taller than you expected. Is that correct?

Wow, @higherheels I’m impressed! A New Years Eve in 13cm boots is quite an accomplishment! My new years was fairly quiet, but nice to stand outside on the boat in the frosty air and watch the fireworks over town (in the distance) in my 12cm boots - which were also pleasingly warm too. Starting the year as I mean to continue! And yes, once you get to 10cms your heels are viewed as insanely high by most people’s standards, yes aesthetically the heights between 10 and 13cm seem to me the most elegant - not at all freakish, just challenging to wear with the grace and fluidity the elegance requires

On your last post I somehow already had the feeling that this won't be the end of 4"+ heels for you 😉 I know that feeling. Even if i was sometimes demotivated with a pair that was higher than what I usually wear, it never let me go! The higher it gets, the more small increasements in heel height will already make a big difference. I'm sure you felt that.

Congratulations, 740 km in heels is insanely much! You always get me curious on how much I walk in heels, but not curious enough to make the effort of tracking it and making a statistic 😉 Maybe I'll once do it for one typical week and then see how that would sum up for one year, to get an idea.

First, Happy new year to all 🙂 Haha I had to laugh so hard on this, but it's true! Everytime I think that I almost live in heels, you guys come along and prove me wrong 😀 Whenever I have some manual work to do, I'm always in sneakers. Impressive that you wear heels for that! For me the only thing that makes me feel a bit awkward about it is that I'm only out for practice, and not going anywhere. It's a different feeling than if I'm actually doing something or going somewhere. Other than that, I have the impression that people don't really care. I mean, some people seem to generally have a look as soon as they hear or see heels, no matter how high or low. But wether it's a 11, 12 or 13 cm heel all seems to be in the "insanely high" category and draw the same attention. @Shyheels and @mlroseplant you have some great New Year's resolutions already! I'll take it a bit easier without a strict time/distance plan, but I'll definitely proceed with wearing out my 13+ cm boots and the Hot Chicks regularly. Despite the predictable standing time I chose my 13+ cm boots for New Year's Eve, so I already started high into 2026 🙂

Here's an opportunity for a New Year's resolution ...

This is a spin-off of my last post entitled, "Sadly, That Will Not Be Happening Again!" because part of this story is a related to that thread and part of it is not. Part One: My swearing off of 4"+ heels only lasted for a week as today, I wore a pair of beautiful 4.75" block-heeled, western styled boots to the office. At either the end of 2023 or the start of 2024, I purchased a pair of beautiful boots (Brand - Raye/Model - Inferno, an appropriate name as they are hot!) via Revolve.com. I have only worn them out once because they always seemed a bit too fancy for wearing wearing to the office. They seem (and are) to be very appropriate for a fancy event or other "dressy" occasion. In fact, I wore these boots to a fancy dinner with a former work colleague about two years ago. Since then, they have sat in my closet waiting to be worn again when the opportunity presented itself. Since that first wearing, however, I have never really had the opportunity to wear them out as fancy dinners or other similar events are few and are between. Given such and my belief that any item I own should be worn out at some point, I have long contemplated selling them in some way, shape, or form. Today is New Year's Eve and I was in the mood to dress up a bit for the office to celebrate the last day of 2025/coming of 2026. I have a lovely burgundy dress that I had yet to wear which, like the boots, is a bit on the fancier side. So, I decided to pair them for the day and what a pairing it was! I generally gravitate towards dresses with a waist tie but as this dress did not have one, I took a black neck scarf and used that as I waist belt. I had thought the boots were a 4.25" heel but when I measured them upon arriving at the office, only then did I realize that they were 4.75." I realized they were taller than I had believed as they just had a certain feel to them, in terms of heel height. Regardless, they were very comfortable and after my work day was done, I ran a quick errand to pick-up a few items for my New Year's Eve dinner. No problems in wearing them all day on any front - no pain in the hips, back, knees, and/or ankles. I just have to wonder if slightly lower heel (0.25") really makes a difference or if they are just of better quality that the once I recently wore. Regardless, I am glad I kept them. Part Two: Some time ago, I happened to view a picture of a female reporter wearing a pair of gorgeous black leather boots while interviewing an individual on the air at her Texas television station. Sadly, there was no information about her boots although when seeing them, I remember thinking to myself that they were "killer" and I would give my left eye to have a pair. I bookmarked the photo as a reference/reminder to look for a similar pair as that would probably be the best I could do. Shortly after I received that boots that are the topic of this post, I went back to that photo to see how my boots compared to those which the reporter was wearing. After carefully examining the boots in the photo with mine, low and behold I realized that, quite by chance/luck, I had purchased the same pair the reporter was wearing! Needless to say, I was quite surprised for a few reasons but more so than not, in a state of disbelief of my find. The manner in which the reporter was wearing them for that interview was very much an inspiration for my New Year's Eve outfit. What's interesting about these boots is that when I first wore then out, the height of the heel was challenging for me but today, not problem what so ever!

Thanks so much for the encouragement and compliments! Hopefully, it was just an off day as I love those boots!

Yes @higherheels has been a real inspiration, not only wearing 12cm as a matter of course but taking on the challenge of wearing Hot Chicks and her even higher boots out and about. It’s nice having that sort of example and inspiration - as well as your high mileage efforts. i am going to do exactly what you describe - set a number of minutes or metres each day and work up. I’ve already noticed how the challenge has dramatically improved my abilities in my 10cm boots. I’m looking forward to the new years challenge!

Firstly, congratulations! I think 365 sounds like a sensible goal for 2026 - one you know you can achieve yet still requires a high degree of dedication.

My thoughts, @Shyheels Perhaps it would be good to set defined goals, such as "we're going to wear our 12 cm (which I don't technically own, by the way) three times a week for x minutes, or y meters. Something like that. Maybe you will have the opportunity to move your boat to a better spot for getting off of it without safety concerns or ruining nice shoe concerns. But, if you're already having to carry your art supplies to someplace, why not a different pair of boots? As for me, I need to get over feeling a little self conscious about "walking over my head." @higherheels evidently does not have a problem walking around her neighborhood in insanely high heels, so perhaps it's time to take a page out of that book. Happy New Year everyone!

It makes sense that a washer/dryer combination would take forever and a day to dry clothes, at least in the western hemisphere. The handicap of 120V. With a normal cord-and-plug connected appliance, you're just not going to get all that much wattage out of the dryer portion. Even with the heat pump setup, you're never going to get the blast of heat that you'll get with a traditional 240V dryer. Even one with one broken heat element, like mine has. I suppose I'll fix it someday, buy why? It actually works just fine if you turn it up to high!

In other news, as it is the last day of the year, and I know I won't go out walkin' until AFTER midnight, I can report that I walked a record breaking 460 high heeled miles this year, or 740.6 km, whichever you prefer. I do not at this time have the statistics about how many were walked in mid heels vs. high heels, and in any case my definitions have changed this year, thanks to standardization brought about by the high heel challenge documented elsewhere. How did I break my previous record by more than 100 miles? I didn't intend to. A little history: I had 312.7 miles in 2023, which barely broke the previous record of 310.1 miles way back in 2014, which was my second year of public heeling and I was way enthusiastic. I followed that up in 2024 by exceeding 350 miles. At the beginning of 2025, I had this idea that if I were to average 30 miles a month, I could get 360. Then I thought, let's shoot for 365, or one mile per day. Then, due to a combination of good weather and being laid off for the first part of the year, by the end of April I was WAY ahead of a mile a day. I decided to up the goal to 420 miles, or 35 miles a month. It was then that I ran into a problem. I had a job again, but it was more hours than I really wanted to work, and six days a week. How was I going to keep up that walking schedule, especially when I often got in over 20,000 steps at work, depending on the day? My solution came by accident, as oftentimes I would crash right after supper, sometimes as early as 7:30, being exhausted from work. I started waking up naturally at 3:30 in the morning, way earlier than I needed to. I used this time to get things done around the house that I didn't get done the previous night, like mop the kitchen floor, and I set aside a couple of days a week to walk. It was in this way that I was able to get the total annual mileage up, little by little, often one mile at a time. By the time I got to October, I knew I was going to blast past the 420 mile goal, so I again upped it to 455 miles, or one mile per cubic inch of displacement in the engine of my son's 1973 Oldsmobile. And I did it, having only walked 16 miles this month. I purposefully told myself I was going to take it easy in December. I do not know whether I will take the trouble to figure out some interesting statistics about this year or not. Since I do not have any kind of spreadsheet, I have to go through and figure it out manually from what I have written down. As for next year? It would be crazy to plan to walk that much again. I think I'll dial it back to a one mile a day average, or 365 miles for the year, and then see what happens.

New Years Eve and one of my great resolutions for 2026 is to master the art of walking gracefully in 12cm stiletto boots - ideally to take a stroll around a city in them, call in at a cafe and enjoy coffee and cake in my 12cm heels. My other ambition for the year is to take up sketching and watercolours - something I’ve been wanting to do for ages. That too will require practice. Maybe I can somehow combine these two ambitions, wear my heels when I go out with sketchbook and pens …

Mine were always dried inside on a drying rack

I spent yesterday afternoon working on an outboard project, wearing my 4" nine west booties. These booties are very easy to walk in and look great. But, will have to admit it, sore feet after standing around at the work bench for three hours...

YIPES! You gambled on playing with fire for sure

Indeed. It’s what I would call living dangerously

I’m a boots, jeans and jumper guy and will remain so. It’s nice that the English climate accommodates me so well although even when I lived in Australia it was still boots and jeans as a rule. It’s more fun still when the boots have a 10cm - and more exciting still, a 12cm heel!

The main problem with Keds is, while wearing them, a person is not going to get any better at wearing 12 or 13 cm heels. To be fair, this is probably not a wise endeavor when one is 8 months pregnant. To answer the question, and yes this is my bias, everybody already knows it: If it had been me, I would have worn some cute leather sandals with the sundress, same as I would with a Dirndlkleid for that matter. But that is a matter for somebody else's life, as I am destined to wear bifurcated lower body clothing for the remainder of my days.

I'm surprised you didn't get clocked on the head with a frying pan!

I don't remember foot changes with pregnancy with my wife, but I have heard of it happening. Interesting that they never returned to pre-pregnancy size though. I remember getting into trouble during that time period with her weight. I teased her and called her "whale belly" because she was into workouts and fitness when she got pregnant. I asked the OBGYN at the time how much weight a woman should gain during pregnancy, and he said between 15-25 pounds. I thought my wife looked huge, so I asked her how much she had gained and he said, "15 pounds". That was when I knew I was in trouble! 🙂 But I also teased her about the baby-weight not coming off after the baby. She wanted to prove me wrong so bad that after giving birth it was 22 days before she lost her baby weight. She had to modify her exercise routine, so she did not cause damage to parts of her that had passed a baby, but I thought 22 days to pre-pregnancy weight was pretty darn good.

We get plenty of wind here; I mean this is the third gale we have had this week, but being living on an island as far out to sea as we live, you cannot dry anything outside unfortunately. The sea air has too much moisture in it, and salty moisture as well. Salty moisture always feels like your clothes are damp so why everything has to be washed in fresh water. I saw a used dryer yesterday at my local appliance place for $150 USD and might consider something like that. Room is just so tight in this small house though so we shall see.

Washer Dryer combos always take forever. I had one before in my old apartment. And yes, the drying is the time consuming part. Because the system has to get all the water out first before it can dry your clothes. It always felt like it was faster if I hung my clothes to dry.

Crawling about the rocks in high heels would be insane. Sneakers are appropriate in this case. (BUT ONLY in this case.)